Illuminating device



y 15, 1961 L. A. FISH 2,984,718

ILLUMINATING DEVICE Filed 001;. 15, 1958 INVENTOR 1.551.; A. F/sH ATTORNEY United States Patent 6 ILLUMINATING DEVICE Leslie A. Fish, 180 Bowers Ave., Phillipsburg, NJ.

Filed Oct. 15, 1958, Ser. No. 767,332

3 Claims. (Cl. 200-6153) This invention relates to electric lighting switches for attachment to the header jamb of a framed door opening and more particularly for illuminating a closet which is provided with doors that slide in parallelism.

Heretofore it has been customary in illuminating devices for closet door construction that the light switch be attached to the vertical door jamb adjacent to the hinge carrying the door as well as the opposite jamb. In more recent years, building design has been improved to the extent that doors have been arranged to slide in parallelism. Naturally, this improvement is beneficial since it can conserve the area through which the usual vertically secured horizontal swinging door must travel. Normally, plunger type electric door switches are adequate for horizontally swinging doors since the door is held in a closed position in opposition to the effect of the spring of the light switch by means of the usual door latch. It is apparent that the use of such a switch would be impractical since the spring urged plunger will maintain the light illuminated within the closet and the door will be held away from the door frame. Moreover, plunger type door switches also have been utilized in combination with sliding doors, but until this invention they had proven to be very unsatisfactory. Furthermore, until now a great deal of time, energy, and money has been spent during the past years to devise a switch arrangement suitable for use with sliding doors, but no one skilled in the art has been able to provide a solution to this problem. Therefore, with such an improvement in building construction as this in mind, and realizing the failures of those who have attempted a solution of this problem, the principal object of the invention is a provision of a plunger type light switch that is positioned within the door jamb header construction and arranged to illuminate the closet to which doors have been attached for sliding in parallelism.

A further object of the invention is to provide an assembly whereby the switch may be operated by various types of cams that may be secured to present sliding doors that upon original installation were not intended to be provided with light switches.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a horizontal elevation of one wall of a room provided with sliding doors with the cams and switch shown in phantom outline;

Figure 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Figure 1 clearly illustrating the cams and light switch;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary elevation on line 33 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 shows a modified embodiment of another type of cam; and

Figure 5 shows still another modified embodiment of an additional type of cam.

With reference to Figure 1 there is shown a portion of one wall of a room wherein horizontally sliding doors 1 and 2 are provided with appropriate hardware to per- 2,984,718 Patented May 16, 1961 mit them to be suspended from the header jamb. More particularly, with reference to Figure 2 it will be noted that the hardware which carries the roller 3 and is arranged to traverse the trackway 4, is duplicated on each of the doors, so that a description of either will suflice for both. Fastened to door 2 (see Fig. 2) by means of screws or any other suitable means is a modified Z- shaped clamp 6. The upstanding leg 7 of the Z-shaped member is perpendicularly slotted, as at 8, and is provided with a knurled surface 9. The roller 3 has an axle 10 which is fastened to a plate 11, as indicated at 12, by any suitable means, such as swaging, etc. The face of plate 11 that is juxtaposed to the upstanding leg 7 is complementally knurled so that a vertical adjustment of the doors relative to the floor and the horizontal trackway 4 may be readily accommodated with a minimum of tools. This plate has as an integral part a depending flange 14 that extends downwardly sufiiciently to provide a finished appearance to the door opening and at the same time make it practically impossible to view the hardware that supports the doors. With further reference to this view, it will be observed that the trackways that carry the doors depend from a horizontal plate 13 that is fastened to the header jamb. As is known in the art this plate commonly comprises an aluminum extrusion. Substantially medially of the doorway (see Fig. 3) is mounted an electric lighting switch, indicated generally at 15, of the spring urged plunger type. The depending free end 16 of the spring urged plunger is suitably guided to maintain the roller in the position illustrated to thereby prevent axial rotation. In addition, the depending end 16 is bifurcated, as at 17 (see Fig. 2) and is provided with a pair of arms apertured as at 1818 and adapted to receive a cylindrical pin 19 that supports the roller or wheel 20 therebetween. With further reference to Figs. 2 and 3, it will be noted that the plate 13 has been apertured as at 21 to permit entry of the receptacle 22, containing the electric lighting switch 15, within the hollow of the wall, generally indicated as W. The receptacle 22 has a collar 23 which is provided with a cover plate 24 and together with the switch 15 provides an assembly that may be suitably attached to the plate 13 by means of screws, rivets, etc.

As shown in Fig. 3, the switch plunger 16 is spring projected to its full length in the position in full lines at which time it is not in contact with either of the cam rail surfaces 25 or 26 carried by doors 1 and 2, respectively. However, in the dotted line position of the plunger in Fig. 3 it will be observed that the roller has moved up the cam rail surface of the door 2, at which time the light that is mounted within the closet will be illuminat d. To associate a light with the switch 15 is believed to be within the knowledge of those skilled in the art and, therefore, the light and the necessary wiring circuit has not been shown in the drawing.

In Figure 4 there is shown a modified type of cam rail construction in which the cam rail 25 is arranged to be fastened to the side and top edge of door 1 and in which the cam rail carried by door 2 comprises two parts. The L-shaped base piece may be fastened by means of screws or any other suitable means to the top edge of door 2 with the upstanding face thereof, that is juxtaposed to cam rail 25', being provided with a knurled surface 27. The upstanding leg of cam 26' rail is also vertically slotted, as at 28, and adapted to adjustably receive therein a bolt 29 which supports an elongated plate 30 that is knurled complemental to leg 28 and thereby secured against any undesired vertical or horizontal movement.

In Figure 5 there is shown still another embodiment of cam rails that may be attached to the aforementioned doors and used to complete an assembly of this type of device. The roller 20 is shown in the same relation to these cam rails as in the previously described views. However, in this view door 1 is provided with a U- shaped cam rail wherein one leg of the U is substantially elongated as at 25" and, is semi-telescoping and will pass completely beneath juxtaposed .Z-shaped cam rail 26 carried by door 2. It is to be noted that in every instance whichever cam rail that it appears to be the most desirable to use, in any particular assembly, that they are constructed and arranged so that the two doors illustrated may slide in parallelism completely from one end of the trackway to the other. It is also considered to be within the scope of the above disclosure, that Where sufiicient distance is provided between the bottoms of the doors and the fioor of the opening above which they depend, to provide both means for mounting the switch and suitable cam rails.

Various other changes and modifications are considered to be within the principle of the invention and the scope of the following claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a closet construction the combination of, means providing a door opening, a horizontal plate arranged above said opening and provided with a depending exterior flange portion, said plate including parallel spaced longitudinally disposed depending trackways, means for suspending at least one pair of doors from and inwardly guided by said trackways and slidable with respect thereto in parallelism within said opening, cam rail means carried at the upper portion of each of said doors, a single light switch supported by said plate substantially medially gig, of the length thereof with its actuating means depending intermediate the path of travel of the planes of the adjacent faces of said doors, each of said cam rail means having a portion thereof oifstanding from the said plane of its respective door to efiect contact with and actuation of said light switch.

2. In a closet construction as recited in claim 1, the cam rail means being of less length than the width of the doors and being equidistantly spaced from those vertical edges of the respective doors which lie adjacent to each other when the doors are in closed relation.

3. In a closet light switch construction the combination of, a wall, a framed opening therein, a horizontal plate provided with a depending flange portion positioned in said opening, said plate including parallel depending horizontal spaced trackways, at least one pair of doors slidably arranged in parallelism within said opening and suspended from said trackways, semi-telescoping cam rail means secured to the top of each of said doors, a receptacle positioned substantially medially of said horizontal plate, a light switch in said receptacle, and means depending from said light switch to cooperate with said cam rail means carried by said doors whereby either of said doors may activate said light switch while moving parallel to and past an adjacently suspended door.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,346,111 Boedtcher July 13, 1920 2,793,263 Wicrzba May 21, 1957 2,821,738 McDonald Feb. 4, 1958 

